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Crown land sales in British Columbia’s oil and gas basins dropped to zero last month in a sign the crippling oil price environment has diminished the companies’ appetite to tap new lands for drilling.

“Nobody bought anything,” said Gregg Scott, president of Calgary-based Scott Land & Lease Ltd., who estimates the B.C. government has raised a mere $200,000 from sales so far this year compared to $2.8 million during the same period in 2015.

Last year, land sales in the wider Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin fell to a 23-year low, according to RBC Capital Markets, as crude oil erased 45 per cent of its value.

So-called “bonuses”, or up-front, lump-sum payments made by companies to the government, fell to $351 million in 2015 from $1.07 billion in 2014 across Western Canada, RBC estimates.

Total acres acquired in Western Canada shot up 24 per cent to 4.3 million acres in 2015, but the spike was primarily during the first few months of the year when companies were optimistic about a quick rebound in oil prices.

Most of the land on offer is in non-oilsands and companies must either drill and pay a royalty or lose the lease after five years. While most companies had chosen to drill wells even at a loss to preserve their lease last year, many are now opting to let the lease expire, Scott said in an interview.

“Land will continue to expire by the hundreds of thousands of hectares before oil firms up to around US$50 a barrel, in my view. Then you will start to see a land rush,” Scott said.

For now, investors are heading for the exit. Overall, Crown land prices in Western Canada fell 73 per cent to $81 per acre in 2015, compared to $308 per acre in 2014.

Alberta’s land sales stood at $11 million by the end of February, compared to $63 million in 2015.

Land will continue to expire by the hundreds of thousands of hectares before oil firms up to around US$50 a barrel, in my view.

Daniel Tchir, president of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.-based Integrity Land Inc., said that junior and intermediate companies — traditionally major buyers of Crown lands in previous years — are absent as they can’t muster the capital and are reluctant to invest amid the economic uncertainty.

“It’s a crapshoot,” Tchir said, noting that a combination of regulatory uncertainty and low prices are keeping investors on the sidelines.

Average selling price in Alberta’s plains basin had descended to $32.34 per acre in the first two months of this year, compared to $99.04 in 2014. British Columbia’s selling prices had eroded to $32.85 this year, compared to $1,043 per acre in 2014.

Oil and gas companies are shunning Crown lands as there’s a slew of proven land assets for sales across Western Canada.

Some companies, such as Birchcliff Energy Ltd, Paramount Resources Ltd., Seven Generations Energy Ltd. and PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. bought up two-thirds of the 240,000 acres on offer over the past two years, RBC estimates.